Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Weight Lifting Exercises For Your Neck

By Westy

It is very noticeable when you see a bodybuilder who has developed the muscles in their neck. The appearance of well developed neck muscles is one of the ways that you can determine who has been working on their body for a while and who has not. You will also be doing something to prevent any injuries that could occur from your other exercises.

One exercise that is very common to improve the muscles in the neck is the shrug. There are some variations that can be used, but it is actually a very simple exercise. Just shrug your shoulders.

You can do the shrug using dumbells, or a barbell. And surprisingly you can often lift a fair bit of weight doing this exercise too. It's only got a short range of motion so you don't have to really do all that much work. It's easy to do the shrug, just grab the weight, hold near your waist and shrug your shoulders like you don't give a damn. Lift them, up, then down slowly. The control of this exercise is important.

You might be surprised at the amount of strength you can acquire from doing this type of exercise. You should find your ideal repetition between five and seven. You should always warm up before you do any type of exercise. You don't want to injure the neck muscles. Start off with a lesser amount of weight until you determine what your best repetition and weight is.

There are other exercises that you can perform for your neck that work quite well. You should keep to the simpler exercises when you are just starting working on your neck muscles.

The exercise is called the weighted neck flexion and it is performed as follows:

1. Take your weight plate and wrap it up in a towel.

2. Lay back on your weight bench with your head off of the bench.

3. place the plate on your forehead and support your hands to support the weight

4. Lift up your body in a movement similar to a situp, bring your chin to your chest.

5. lower your body slowly till you are fully extended again

6. Continue until you are done.

This can be done in the reverse style too when you're on your stomach.

There are other exercises that can be used to improve the strength of your neck. Put your hands on one side of your head and push your head in the other direction. You will be using your own body to perform the exercise and not risking injury with weights. This is the ideal way to start the exercises for your neck. It is important that you do not do neck exercises like the neck bridge unless you have been working out for some time and already have a strong neck. This type of exercise is most often done by those that are into wrestling.

Over all, the neck is only a small, but important part of the overall upper body routine. Workout your shoulders, chest and back regularly and chuck in a couple of sets of shrugs and you should be growing stronger and thicker neck muscles in no time.

About the Author:

No comments: